Science of Electricity – Computation

Summary

Students apply real-world energy data to calculate fuel requirements, operation costs, CO2 emissions, and weighted-average costs across six electricity sources: coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydropower, wind, and solar. The six multi-step problems build from single-source calculations to portfolio analysis, making this a strong fit for math integration in a middle school or high school energy unit. All data is sourced from the EIA and includes a reference table with thermal efficiency, capacity factors, and cost per kWh.